Mortal Kombat (1995)

When the fighting game Mortal Kombat debuted in arcades in 1992, its success led to a sequel, Mortal Kombat II, in 1993. As Mortal Kombat 3 (MK3) was being developed for a 1995 release, the games were expanded into a multimedia franchise, including a PG-13 live-action film, Mortal Kombat (MK95), released months after MK3. While I was aware of the franchise for the longest time before being formally introduced to it through the 2011 game, I became curious about MK95 film after seeing the 2021 reboot, but didn’t follow through on it until recently when I saw Mortal Kombat II (2026) in a theater. While I found it to be enjoyable in places, I found it to have a flawed execution and some missed opportunities.

An alternate realm known as Outworld wants to take control of Earthrealm. In order to do so, they must score 10 consecutive wins in a martial arts tournaments known as Mortal Kombat, and have so far won nine. As Earthrealm prepares for the 10th tournament, Liu Kang (Robin Shou) insists on participating to avenge his brother Chan’s death at the hands of the sorcerer Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). On his way to the tournament, he is joined by Hollywood actor Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Special Forces officer Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson), who are in the tournament for their own reasons.

Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) and Johnny Cage
(Linden Ashby) have been chosen as Earthrealm's champions.

 

Perhaps owing to there only being two arcade games to work with at the time, the film is a bit light on plot, causing it to drag a little between fight scenes. Focusing on three primary characters (Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade) is a good idea, but between the three of them, Liu Kang has a more complete character arc while Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade’s arcs feel undercooked. Some potential also feels wasted with Scorpion (Chris Casamassa) and Sub-Zero (François Petit), as their iconic rivalry is stated, but never seen since they are under Shang Tsung’s control the entire runtime.

On the flip side, where MK95 falls short on story, it delivers when it comes to its myriad fight scenes, even with the PG-13 rating holding the violence back. For the most part, there is some really great fight choreography, with some battles incorporating more acrobatic moves that keep things exciting. That said, at least a couple fights (Scorpion vs Johnny Cage, Liu Kang vs Reptile) come out of nowhere and seem to serve no other purpose than to pad the runtime and add more fights. While the fights involving special effects could get a little dodgy, I was particularly disappointed that Kano (Trevor Goddard), despite having his bionic eye from the games, never fires a single laser.

Likely owing to the film’s age, the special effects are very hit-and-miss. Overall, the practical effects have aged pretty well, particularly the animatronics used for Goro, even if he appears a little lankier than his game counterpart as a result. The signature Fatalities are heavily toned-down from the games as a result of the PG-13 rating, but that doesn’t stop the film from having some pretty dark imagery, and the practical effects truly shine in this regard. The computer effects, on the other hand, have not aged well at all and add an unintentional “cheese” factor, especially the CG effects that look like something out of a PS1 cutscene. Reptile looks particularly laughable in how he barely resembles an actual reptile, something that the 2021 film would later rectify. To not end this section with too much negativity, one element that goes underappreciated about early live-action video game movies is how game-accurate the costumes can be, which in this case applies to Reptile’s human form, Goro, Scorpion and Sub-Zero as of the original arcade trilogy.

Reptile in the 1995 film.

Reptile in the 2021 film.

One thing that has aged well is the soundtrack, namely the debut of the iconic track “Techno Syndrome” by Olivier Adams, which has gone on to become heavily associated with the Mortal Kombat franchise as a whole. The acting is decent for the most part, though Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Christopher Lambert stand out as Shang-Tsun and Lord Raiden, respectively, and voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson was a great choice for the voice of Goro. Having seen Mortal Kombat II shortly before my initial viewing of MK95, I didn’t think Linden Ashby was bad as Johnny Cage, but still felt it wasn’t as good as Karl Urban’s take over three decades later.

Even divorced from the context of a video game, Mortal Kombat (1995) is a good example of a movie that can be classified as “so bad, it’s good;” most of it isn’t great, but you can’t help finding something to enjoy about it anyway. If nothing else, the music and fight scenes are the highlights of the movie and are perhaps the main reasons most viewers, even those outside the Mortal Kombat fandom, would want to watch it. And in this case, that’s perfectly valid.